To enable us to achieve our goals, we have enlisted some of New Zealand's most experienced and talented people and engaged with international leaders in food safety research.

Governance Board:

Dr Marshall is a biotechnologist and chemical engineer with a career spanning a range of primary industries including dairy, fruit, arable, meat and seafood. Previous roles include managing director of ViaLactia Biosciences Ltd, group director R&D of the New Zealand Dairy Board and chief executive of the New Zealand Dairy Research Institute (now Fonterra Research Centre).

Dr Marshall currently serves on a number of boards and committees, including Riddet CoRE (chair), Food Industry Enabling Technologies (chair), Industry Advisory Panel for the High Value Nutrition National Science Challenge (chair), Bioresource Processing Alliance, Seafood Innovations Ltd and the Foundation for Arable Research Strategic Research Committee. He is a past member of the Investment Advisory Panel of the Primary Growth Partnership and the board of Plant and Food Research Ltd. He is a reviewer for MBIE and Callaghan Institute projects. A Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry and a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Food Science and Technology (NZIFST), he was awarded the NZIFST JC Andrews Award for Distinction in Food Science and Technology in 2006 and the Distinguished Service Award in 2012. He is an Honorary Member of the International Dairy Federation (IDF), past President of the Coordination Committee and Vice Chairman of the Codex Milk Committee. In 2016 he was awarded the IDF Award, which recognises remarkable contributions to progress in dairying worldwide.

Greg McCullough is the Group Director, Food Safety & Quality and Regulatory Affairs, based in New Zealand. His role is to define and lead the development and implementation of a comprehensive, ‘best in class’ approach to Food Safety & Quality across Fonterra globally. Together with his team and the business units, Greg is responsible for building upon our Food Safety and Quality culture in our journey to be the world’s most trusted source of dairy nutrition.

Greg previously held positions of Vice President Global Quality Management for Mead Johnson and lead a world class Food Safety and Quality organisation. Prior to that held the Role of Director Quality and Food Safety Asia Pacific for Danone Baby Nutrition. Over his career he has established an enviable reputation as one of the industry’s most influential leaders in the field of Food Safety & Quality. Greg is a chemist with a strong micro background.

Greg comes from a family with strong interests in dairy farming and milk production. He is a Fonterra shareholder and has a wealth of experience in manufacturing across dairy and infant nutrition, including managing plants in China, Indonesia, New Zealand, Thailand and Europe. Greg has lived and worked in China, Netherlands, Singapore and the USA.

Carol joined Zespri in April 2002, after two years of involvement with Kiwifruit New Zealand and Kiwifruit Growers Incorporated (KGI). She has worked in a variety of roles within Zespri encompassing Supply Chain, Grower Services, and Communications.

In 2011 Carol assumed the role of GM Marketing, based initially in Belgium, then in Taiwan and most recently in Singapore. In January 2015, Carol assumed her current role as GM Innovation which has seen her relocate back to New Zealand.

Prior to working in the kiwifruit industry Carol held a variety of marketing and sales roles at Carter Holt Harvey Tissues and divisional management roles at Hanimex (NZ) Limited and New Zealand Dairy Foods

Carol has a BMS (Honours) from the University of Waikato, and is married to Mike, with a 12-year-old son, Marco

Jonathan joined MBIE’s Science Investments branch (now called Science System Investment and Performance) in mid-2014. He is the key MBIE contact for the New Zealand Food Safety Science and Research Centre and the Healthier Lives National Science Challenge, and is responsible for MBIE’s Strategic Science Investment Fund (SSIF) Programmes investment (formerly CRI core funding) for Plant and Food Research. Jonathan is also involved with three other National Science Challenges and ESR’s SSIF Programmes investment. Prior to joining MBIE, Jonathan worked in research funding and management in the Tertiary Education Commission and the University of Auckland, and in public sector policy, operational and corporate planning positions. Jonathan has a Master of Arts in Linguistics through the University of Auckland.

Ruth Shinoda is the Director of Food and Regulatory Policy for the Ministry of Primary Industries. Her Directorate is responsible for developing and maintaining the policy and regulatory frameworks for New Zealand's food system, supporting the effective use of science, and developing the skills pipeline for the primary industry.

Ruth has previously held senior positions in a range of government agencies in New Zealand and the United Kingdom specialising in the development and delivery of high quality policy advice, particularly in the area of skills. Ruth has also been Director of Social Investment at the Private Equity Foundation in London, and worked for the Japanese Productivity Centre in Tokyo.

Ruth has a BA (Honours) in Economics from the University of Nottingham, was a 2001 Daiwa Scholar, and is married to Yoshihiro with two daughters Kanako and Naomi.

Professor Giselle Byrnes is Assistant Vice-Chancellor Research, Academic and Enterprise at Massey University where she provides strategic academic leadership to the University across the areas of teaching and learning, research and commercialization.

In her role as AVC RAE, Professor Byrnes is responsible for driving the development and implementation of strategies, policies and standards that underpin the delivery of quality research and teaching across the institution. She has executive level oversight of academic quality assurance, academic development, and Massey University’s online learning platform. In her role as AVC RAE, she provides strategic academic leadership and management to the core services for research and researcher development and leads the University’s commercialization and enterprise agenda.

Professor Byrnes is an internationally recognized New Zealand historian and has published widely on aspects of settler colonial and indigenous histories. She has been a Fulbright scholar and has served as President of the New Zealand Historical Association. She has taught at Victoria University of Wellington and the University of Waikato and has held academic and senior management roles in New Zealand and Australia.

Professor Martin Cole is an internationally recognized food scientist and accomplished science leader with over 25 years’ experience in research management across government, academia and industry. Professor Cole is currently Deputy Director of CSIRO Agriculture and Food. Prior to this, Prof Cole was Director of CSIRO Food and Nutrition. Professor Cole joined CSIRO as Chief of Food and Nutritional Sciences in January 2010 and was appointed as the first Chief of the division of Animal, Food and Health Sciences in July 2012.

His previous position was Director of the National Center for Food Safety and Technology (NCFST), a highly successful and growing research consortium between the US Food and Drug Administration, Illinois Institute of Technology and over 30 global food companies.

He has published and presented over 160 papers on many aspects of food science including food safety, food trends and innovation, novel processing and nutrition. He has over 15 years’ experience with the CODEX Food Hygiene Committee and has frequently been called upon as an expert by organizations such the World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as well as the US House of Representatives.

Prof Cole has held a number of important positions professionally and is currently the Chair of the International Commission on the Microbiological Specifications for Food (ICMSF) and a Director with FSANZ (Food Standards Australia and New Zealand). The ICMSF is an award winning non-government organization (NGO) that has a long history of outstanding and timely contributions to the global management of food safety issues; FSANZ is a bi-national Government agency that develops and administers the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code, which lists requirements for foods such as additives, food safety, labelling and GM foods.

Professor Cole is a graduate of Australian Institute of Company Directors, Adjunct Professor at the Tasmanian Institute of Agricultural Science, University of Tasmania and an IFT Certified Food Scientist (CFS). Throughout his career, Prof Cole has received numerous awards for his contribution to food science including election as a fellow of the International Academy of Food Science and Technology (IaFoST).

Neil is the Group Manager Technical and Quality for Silver Fern Farms Ltd. His role is to implement and manage food safety and regulatory systems that underpin the Silver Fern Farms “Plate to Pasture” strategy. Neil has previously held senior technical roles at Richmond Ltd and Weddel NZ Ltd.

Neil has been involved with the implementation of numerous food safety programmes at meat processing plants across New Zealand. These have included multiple species, further processed and ready to eat products.

Over the years Neil has participated in a range of Meat Industry technical and food safety working groups. Currently holds positions on the MPI/MIA Strategic Directions Group, and MIA Innovation Technical Advisory Group. Neil has a background in Biochemistry and Microbiology, is married to Ros, has a daughter Hayley 18, and son Cameron 20.

Management and Administration:

Nigel is Professor of Food Safety and Veterinary Public Health at Massey University, New Zealand. He is Director of the Infectious Disease Research Centre (www.idrec.ac.nz) and the Executive Director of the the Molecular Epidemiology and Public Health laboratory in the Hopkirk Research Institute (http://mepilab.massey.ac.nz/), specializing in research and training in molecular epidemiology, food safety and the control of infectious diseases. Nigel has led a number of One Health inter-disciplinary research programmes, combining microbiology, molecular biology and modeling, in both New Zealand and the United Kingdom. He has published over 240 peer-reviewed journal articles, and 5 book chapters; many in the area of food safety and public health. Nigel is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand, a Fellow of Food Standards Australia New Zealand, a member of the New Zealand Food Safety and Assurance Advisory Council and the MPI/MoH Technical Advisory Group on Food Safety. He holds honorary/visiting professorships at the Universities of Liverpool and Surrey in the UK and the University of Otago Medical School in New Zealand. He was the recipient of the Massey University Research Medal in 2012.

Prior to joining Massey University in 2004, Nigel held a number of academic positions at the University of Bristol and, between 1996 and 2004, at the University of Liverpool, where he was Professor of Veterinary Epidemiology. Although his current focus is on molecular epidemiology of bacterial pathogens, he has also published extensively in the fields of equine welfare (colic and racing injuries), ruminant parasitology (ectoparasites and tick borne disease) and the health and productivity of smallholder dairy farming in East Africa. He graduated as a veterinary surgeon from the University of Bristol in 1987, and in 1993 he was awarded a PhD (Bristol) and a Masters degree in epidemiology (University of London, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine), funded by a Wellcome Trust Research Training Fellowship in Clinical Epidemiology.

Dr Brightwell was appointed to the role of NZFSSRC Associate Director in October 2016. In addition to this role, Gale is the Science Theme Leader (Mitigation) for NZ Food Safety Science and Research Centre Science.

Wendy joined the NZ Food Safety Science & Research Centre as Manager in May 2016, having spent the previous six years managing the Allan Wilson Centre, a national virtual scientific network, and one of New Zealand's seven Centres of Research Excellence. Prior to coming to Massey University in 2010, Wendy was Director of Adult Continuing Education at Queen Elizabeth College in Palmerston North. Wendy’s extensive experience in leadership and management across the education sector is supplemented by a Master of Management degree and a Master of Business Administration (Distinction) from Massey University.

Michal comes to the NZ Food Safety Science & Research Centre from Massey University’s Institute of Veterinary, Animal & Biomedical Sciences where she gained significant experience in university systems and administration over several years. Michal has also provided Professor French with support since 2015 and brings a valuable institution-wide perspective to the Centre.

Glenda is a freelance science writer and communications adviser, contracted to the Centre. She has a broad knowledge of the biological and physical sciences.

She was formerly communications manager at the Royal Society of NZ, and was elected a Companion in 2012 for her work in science promotion and education. Her forte is conceiving and executing exciting flagship themes such as the Transit of Venus, Are Angels OK? and From Africa to Aotearoa – the longest journey.

Glenda has worked with the Centre Director Nigel French, and Manager Wendy Newport-Smith, for many years as adviser to the Allan Wilson Centre.

Her interest in sustainable land/water use and food security has developed through a 2016 Winston Churchill Fellowship.

International Scientific Advisory Panel:

Dr. Arie Hendrik Havelaar is a professor in the Animal Sciences Department, the Institute for Sustainable Food Systems and the Emerging Pathogens Institute of the University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA. Before moving to the United States in 2014, Arie Havelaar worked at the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, the Netherlands and at the Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands to which he still is affiliated.

His research focuses on quantitative approaches to foodborne diseases and prevention. Recent activities on the epidemiology of foodborne diseases include estimating the true incidence of foodborne illness, attribution of human disease to food and other pathways, estimating the disease burden using Disability Adjusted Life Years as a summary metric of public health and estimating cost-of-illness.

Quantitative microbial risk assessment studies include method development with a special interest in dose-response modeling, the impact of acquired immunity and uncertainty analysis. Farm-to-fork modeling of pathogens in animal and produce food chains is a basis for evaluating the public health impact of interventions, cost-benefit and risk-benefit analysis, and decision support modeling.

Arie Havelaar is chairing the WHO Foodborne Disease Burden Reference Group (FERG), which has published the global burden of foodborne disease in 2015, and has been a member and vice-chair of the Scientific Panel on Biological Hazards of the European Food Safety Authority from 2006-2015.

Dr Arnoud van Vliet is a Senior Lecturer in Microbiology at the School of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Surrey. His research focuses on zoonotic bacterial pathogens, with an emphasis on those transmitted through the food chain, such as Campylobacter. Despite strong biosecurity measures, Campylobacter is able to persist in the agricultural environment and colonize poultry and farm animals, and is subsequently transmitted via the food chain. While easy to kill in laboratory conditions, Campylobacter is a resilient pathogen that has been able to adapt to changes in agricultural practice and food preparation. His research looks at the role of biofilms in the transmission and persistence of Campylobacter, and investigates the role of genetic diversity between isolates, with the ultimate aim of identifying targets for detection/treatment/vaccination. Other areas of interest are in the use of genome sequencing for a better understanding of virulence mechanisms, immune escape, phage defence and antimicrobial resistance.

After studies in chemistry (Copenhagen University), engineering (the Engineering Academy of Denmark), and physics (Copenhagen University), Professor Adam Lindgreen completed an MSc in food science and technology at the Technical University of Denmark. He also finished an MBA at the University of Leicester. Professor Lindgreen received his Ph.D. in marketing from Cranfield University. He has been a professor of marketing at Hull University’s Business School (2007-2010), the University of Birmingham’s Business School (2010) where he also was the research director in the Department of Marketing, and the University of Cardiff’s Business School (2011-2016). Under his headship of the Department of Marketing and Strategy at Cardiff Business School, the department was ranked first among all marketing departments in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, and the US based upon hg indices of senior faculty. Since 2016, he has been Professor of Marketing at Copenhagen Business School, where he also heads the Department of Marketing.

Professor Lindgreen has been a Visiting Professor with various institutions, including Georgia State University, Groupe HEC in France, and Melbourne University. His publications have appeared in Business Horizons, California Management Review, Industrial Marketing Management, International Journal of Management Reviews, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Business Ethics, European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, Journal of Marketing Management, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Journal of World Business, Psychology & Marketing, and Supply Chain Management: An International Journal.

The recipient of the “Outstanding Article 2005” award from Industrial Marketing Management and the runner-up for the same award in 2016, Professor Lindgreen serves on the board of several scientific journals; he is co-editor-in-chief of Industrial Marketing Management and previously was the joint editor of Journal of Business Ethics for the section on corporate responsibility. His research interests include business and industrial marketing management, experiential marketing, and corporate social responsibility. Professor Lindgreen has been awarded the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Executive Teaching. He has examined (dissertations, modules, and programs) at numerous institutions including Australian National University, Unitec, University of Amsterdam, University of Bath’s Management School, University of Lethbridge, and University of Mauritius.

Professor Lindgreen is a member of the International Scientific Advisory Panel of the New Zealand Food Safety Science and Research Centre, and he is a member of the Chartered Association of Business Schools’ Academic Journal Guide (AJG) Scientific Committee in the field of marketing.

Professor Lindgreen has discovered and excavated settlements from the Stone Age in Denmark, including the only major kitchen midden—Sparregård—in the south-east of Denmark; because of its importance, the kitchen midden was later excavated by the National Museum and then protected as a historical monument for future generations. He is also an avid genealogist, having traced his family back to 1390 and published widely in scientific journals (Personalhistorisk Tidsskrift, The Genealogist, and Slægt & Data) related to methodological issues in genealogy, accounts of population development, and particular family lineages.

Dr. Leon Gorris is Director for Regulatory Affairs at Unilever, with specific responsibility for food safety globally. He joined Unilever in The Netherlands in 1997, being located in Vlaardingen, and subsequently was based in the UK from 2001-2010, in Shanghai from 2010-2014 and since October 2014 again in The Netherlands.

Before joining Unilever, Leon worked at the Agrotechnological Research Institute (ATO-DLO) in Wageningen, The Netherlands, which was then part of the Agricultural Research Department, Ministry of Agriculture, Nature Management and Fisheries, The Netherlands (1990–1997).

From 2002–2012, Leon Gorris held a part-time professorship serving as the European Chair in Food Safety Microbiology at the University of Wageningen in The Netherlands. He is currently visiting professor at three Universities in China: China Agricultural University’s School of Food Science and Nutrition in Beijing, Shanghai Ocean University and the University of Shanghai for Science and technology.

He is a member of the International Commission on Microbiological Specifications for Foods (ICMSF) and represents ICMSF at Codex Alimentarius and in interactions with FAO and WHO.

He is co-chair of the International Expert Panel on Food Safety of IUFoST (the International Union of Food Science and Technology) and has been elected to the International Academy of Food Science and Technology (IAFoST) in 2016.

He was awarded the IAFP International Leadership Award in 2007, selected to present the John H. Silliker Lecturer in 2014 and awarded the IAFP Fellow Award in 2016.

Anne is the former inaugural CEO of the Victorian government’s authority, Dairy Food Safety Victoria. She previously held a number of senior executive positions in the Victorian public sector for 30 years working in food policy and regulation, public health, agriculture, minerals and petroleum, natural resources and environment, land administration and forensic science. Prior to this, Anne was a Senior Tutor at Monash University where she conducted biomedical research and lectured to science and medical undergraduates.

Anne is currently Chair of the Board of William Angliss Institute, Food Agility, the SafeFish Partnership and the Grains and Legumes Nutrition Council’s Code of Practice Complaints Committee. She is a member of CSIRO’s Agriculture and Food Advisory Committee and Australia’s Health Star Rating Advisory Committee. More recently she was elected to the Council of Catholic Social Services Victoria and has been an independent member of EnergySafe Victoria’s Audit and Risk Committee since 2011. In 2013, she was appointed to the Panel of the New Zealand Government’s Inquiry into the Whey Protein Contamination Incident.

She is the immediate past Chair and President of the Australian Institute of Food Science and Technology (AIFST), the Australian and New Zealand Implementation SubCommittee for Food Regulation (ISFR) and Wellsprings for Women Inc, a not-for-profit organisation that delivers integration and training programs to isolated women. She has previously held Directorships at Australian Dairy Farmers Ltd., Dairy Australia, the Melbourne Royal Botanic Gardens and until April 2011, was Chair of the Victorian Minister’s Women in Primary Industries Advisory Panel.

In 2016 Anne was awarded the John Bryant Gold Medal for outstanding service to the dairy industry. In 2011, she was awarded the Public Service Medal in the Victorian Division of the Queen’s Birthday Honours for her services to the dairy industry, national food regulation and rural women. In 2010, she was inducted into the Victorian Women’s Honour Roll for her work in biochemistry and as an advocate of women’s leadership, and in that year she was awarded the Australian Dairy Industry Council’s Outstanding Service Award in recognition of her leadership to the Australian dairy industry, the first woman to receive this.

Anne has a B.Sc in Chemistry, a B.Sc (Hons) in Biochemistry and a Ph.D (Biochemistry). She has a Graduate Diploma in Public Sector Management and is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and the Dairy Industry Association of Australia.

Science Leadership Team:

Professor Phil Bremer, is in the Food Science Department at the University of Otago. He applies a multi-disciplinary approach involving microbiology, chemistry, sensory science and product development, to gain an understanding of how factors such as raw material selection, product formulation, processing steps, packaging design, storage conditions, sanitation regimes (particularly to control biofilms) and product form impact on a food’s safety, stability (shelf-life), quality (taste, appearance, texture), reputation (consumer perception) and ultimately it’s value in the market place.

Professor Bremer has worked with a wide range of companies on dairy, vegetable, seafood, meat, beer and wine related projects. Phil lectures in the areas of food microbiology, risk assessment and regulation and has had extensive experience supervising students on industry-funded product development projects.

Prior to joining the University of Otago, Phil worked for 10 years in the Seafood Research Unit (Plant & Food Research) in Nelson. He has published over a 150 scientific articles and is active in the NZ Microbiological Society (Past President), the NZ Institute for Food Science and Technology (Fellow, Member of the Executive) and the New Zealand Association for Food Protection (President).

Dr Gale Brightwell is the Associate Director and Science Theme Leader (Mitigation) for NZ Food Safety Science and Research Centre Science
Other positions include Team Leader for Food Assurance and Meat Quality for AgResearch and Acting Director Hopkirk Research Institute.

Dr Brightwell’s research interests cover many aspects of food assurance and molecular microbiology. In particular, the rapid detection and identification of zoonotic organisms, pre and post-harvest antimicrobial intervention and control of pathogens, understanding the microbial ecology and bacterial population dynamics within complex environments as well as clostridial spoilage of meat and dairy products.
Dr Brightwell originally trained as a Medical Laboratory Officer at the Derbyshire Royal Infirmary and completed her degree and PhD in molecular microbiology at the University of East Anglia. Her first postdoctoral position was at Bristol University studying the role of the transcription factor, WT1, in normal nephrogenesis and Wilms’ tumour (WT) development. After two years she joined the Centre for Molecular Cell Biology at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia to work on another transcription factor, Brn-2, involved in melanoma proliferation. She returned to the UK where her work at DSTL Porton Down, Wiltshire, led to three patents; before joining AgResearch in 2004, she spent four years working on a Welcome Trust Funded investigating the molecular mechanisms behind one of the most common forms of mental retardation in boys, Fragile X.
Research undertaken by the Food Assurance and Meat Quality Team is aimed at addressing industry needs across the whole value chain continuum from rumen to retail. This holistic approach involves consideration of every stage from on-farm to food consumption including microbiology, food safety, provenance, product quality; processing technology; social or religious requirements such as Halal as well as identifying ways of measuring quality and appearance of products for export and domestic markets.

Dr Biggs completed an undergraduate degree in Applied Biochemistry at Brunel University where he received a first class BSc (Hons) in 1992. He then went on to study a PhD in human familial cancer genetics at the Institute of Cancer Research – part of the University of London – and was awarded a PhD in 1996. His first postdoctoral position was with one of his PhD supervisors at the Institute of Cancer Research (Prof Sir Michael Stratton) looking into familial genes involved in testicular cancer. Continuing the theme of cancer genetics, he then went to Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX, USA for three years (1998 – 2001) to work with Prof Allan Bradley in the study of genes involved in breast cancer.

Dr Biggs returned to the UK in 2001 when Prof Bradley replaced Prof Sir John Sulston as the new Director of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute near Cambridge. Dr Biggs continued to work with Prof Bradley, and then moved to work with Dr Bill Skarnes as part of a murine stem cell resource generation project, where he developed his interest in the field of computational biology. He was made Group Leader for the project in 2002, and then Informatics Group Leader in 2006 as the project grew in size, a position he held until 2007 when he moved to New Zealand.

Dr Biggs joined Massey University in late 2007 where he worked in collaboration with the Allan Wilson Centre and the Massey Genome Service in next generation sequencing data generation and analysis. It was at this point that he developed his interest in food-borne pathogens, and started his long-term collaboration with Prof Nigel French in the Molecular Epidemiology laboratory within the Institute of Veterinary, Animal and Biomedical Sciences (IVABS). In 2011, Dr Biggs became a Senior Lecturer in Computational Biology in IVABS – his current position – and split his time between research within the Molecular Epidemiology team and working for the Massey Genome Service. His current research interests are in comparative bacterial pathogenomics, particularly species within the Campylobacter, Salmonella and Escherichia genera. In 2012 he joined New Zealand Genomics Ltd (NZGL) as part of the Massey Genome Service to provide genomics and bioinformatics support, where he is now Bioinformatics Team Leader for a national group of around 15 bioinformaticians from three universities. Currently he is an Associate Editor at PLoS ONE and was on the organising committee for the 18th workshop on Campylobacter, Helicobacter and Related Organisms that was held in Rotorua 2015.

I completed my Lic. Sc. Phys. at the Science Faculty of the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) in 1999 with a Master thesis on lung modeling to detect early sign of diseases. In 2001, I was awarded the Scientific Prize of the Belgian Physical Society for the best Masters thesis in physics. During my PhD I investigated nonlinear optical phenomena in fibres for applications to wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) telecommunication systems and to Raman optical amplifiers. Part of my work in collaboration with Alcatel resulted in a patent. After that brief incursion in nonlinear optics for my PhD thesis (2003) and my postdoc (2004), I went back to looking at biological problems using various optical sensing and imaging techniques.Since 2005, I have been leading the biophotonics group at the University of Auckland. I have been working on an all-fibre real time spectroscopic optical probe (or optrode) and on optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging as well as nonlinear imaging. I am also the sensing and imaging theme leader of the Dodd Walls centre or research excellence for photonics and quantum technologies.

Dr Tim Harwood is an analytical chemist based at the Cawthron Institute in Nelson with specialised expertise in the field of marine biotoxin analysis and research. His current research focus is on methods of analysis for paralytic shellfish toxins, and fundamental research on the toxins responsible for ciguatera fish poisoning. Tim leads the MBIE-funded Safe New Zealand Seafood programme that has a research focus on micro-organism risks to seafood, including harmful algae, viruses and bacteria. The programme shares his vision for New Zealand to be a world leader in the safety of seafood exports and development of tools/systems for ensuring safety.

Graham Fletcher leads the Food Safety and Preservation research team within Plant & Food Research. His team works on the safety of seafood and horticultural products as well as other aspects of post harvest seafood processing and preservation. The author of over 60 peer reviewed scientific publications, Graham’s current seafood research programmes include Listeria monocytogenes, pathogenic Vibrio species, non-thermal processing methods such as high pressure processing, modified atmosphere packaging, antimicrobial packaging and other aspects of seafood quality assessment and shelf life.

Rob Lake is the Manager of the Risk, Response and Social Systems Group of the Environmental Science Business Group at the Institute of Environmental Science and Research. Based in Christchurch, Rob has worked in food safety risk analysis since 1988, principally for the Ministry for Primary Industries. Projects have included risk profiling, quantitative risk assessments, burden of foodborne disease estimation, expert elicitation, and safety assessment of genetically modified foods. Over the last ten years, Rob has also been active in World Health Organization sponsored projects, estimating the global burden of foodborne disease, and national food safety system needs assessments.

Dr Mirosa is the Director for the Consumer Food Science Programme and a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Food Science, University of Otago. In 2015, Dr Mirosa led a grant for developing NZ/China collaborations in food safety and security science. As Principle Investigator, she led a team of 13 NZ scientists from 7 different institutes to China to partake in a conference and industry visits. Dr Mirosa currently holds a NZ/China Postharvest Loss and Food Waste Research Fellowship, funded by the NZ Ministry for Primary Industries – a programme aiming to enhance business-research-government partnerships through commercially meaningful research, complement joint research programmes under the China-NZ Food Safety and Security Science Roadmap, and support the APEC Food Security and Free Trade Area Asia Pacific work. In addition to her work with the Centre in the area of consumers’ risk perceptions and risk communication, much of Dr Mirosa’s ‘consumer insights/marketing’ research focusses on food waste hotspots, aims to understand reasons for wasteful practices, and provides recommendations on minimisation. Dr Mirosa is regularly asked to provide policy advice and consultancies (and was the NZ delegate at the 2015 APEC Food Security Workshop, China). In 2016, Miranda was invited to join the APEC project ‘Strengthening Public-Private Partnership to Reduce Food Losses’. Her research expertise has been sought by organisations in civil society who are committed to reducing food waste (for example she sits on the Technical Working Group for the NZ National Food Waste Prevention Project). In addition to food waste, she is a also currently a funded researcher in the NZ National Science Challenge - High Value Nutrition (Stage 2 Proposal, Funded 2016 to 2021–Consumer perceptions of functional foods).

Her research profile is built on publications in the world’s leading consumer food, sustainability and nutrition journals including: ‘Appetite’, ‘J of Food Quality Preference’, ‘J of Nutrition and Dietetics’, ‘J of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics’, ‘J of Environmental Policy & Planning’ and ‘British Food J’. Dr Mirosa serves as an Editorial Board Member for ‘J of Food Ethics’ and ‘Beverages’. Funding from 22 separate competitive research grants and consultancies highlights recognition of her research.

Dr Mirosa is particularly interested in relationship building with researchers who have expertise in Asian consumer insights, in marketing, in food and beverage supply chain management and in running consumer data collection studies. Key areas of focus are food waste and food sustainability, food safety (consumers’ risk perceptions and risk communication), perceptions of health/wellness and functional foods

Dr Dion O’Neale is based in the Physics Department at Auckland University and is a Principal Investigator in Te Pūnaha Matatini --- a New Zealand Centre of Research Excellence for network science and complex systems. His research in complex systems and network science uses mathematical models to understand how systems of many interacting parts can give rise to collective behaviour that can't be predicted from the individual components of the system. His work has applications to a wide range of systems: from innovation ecosystems, patterns of scientific collaboration, and regional networks of technologies; to networks of soil microbes and environmental variables in the Antarctic Dry Valleys; to country-scale networks of firms and workers. His research makes extensive use of big data analytics to formulate and verify the network models.

Technical Advisors:

Steve has had a long involvement in food safety research and the development of regulatory food control systems and standards, initially as Director of Programme Development in the New Zealand Food Safety Authority, through to his current position as the Director of Science and Risk Assessment in the Ministry of Primary Industries. He has more than 250 publications in science journals and conference proceedings.

Steve has had extensive involvement with standards agencies, as a government representative and as a consultant, in their development of food safety risk analysis and the setting of international standards and guidelines. He is chairman of the Codex Committee on Milk and Milk Products which sets the standards for milk and milk products in international trade. He is a member of the OIE Animal Production and Food Safety Working Group which co-ordinates and informs international work on food-borne zoonoses. He is a member of several international advisory groups e.g. the Hong Kong Government Advisory Committee on Food Safety.

Steve is an Adjunct Professor of Food Safety at Massey University. He participates in a number of food safety groups on behalf of government e.g. Chairman of the MPI Technical Advisory Committee on DCD.

Kaylene Larking is an industrial chemist with 10 years’ experience managing research companies responsible for collaborative Research and Development portfolios for the agricultural sector. She has managed three different Government/Industry funded Research Partnerships over that period and is currently the Manager of MIA Innovation Limited for the Meat Industry Association; which seeks to improve returns from red meat for meat processors. The challenge of working across various science disciplines with multiple industry organisations and research providers has helped shape her understanding and appreciation of R&D in the agricultural sector.

Dr Scott Crerar is General Manager of the Science and Risk Assessment Branch at Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ). This role is responsible for overseeing the scientific and risk assessment functions of the agency that includes biological sciences and genetically modified foods, chemical safety (toxicology) and nutrition, food data and analysis (food composition and dietary modelling), international and strategic science activities, and chemical residue related activities.

Dr Crerar has worked in food safety and regulation for 20 years across a range of risk assessment roles including the public health assessment of agricultural and veterinary chemicals and risk assessment of chemical and microbiological hazards across a number of primary production sectors. Dr Crerar previously managed the FSANZ Science Strategy and the international activities including aspects relating to the APEC Food Safety Corporation Forum.

Dr Crerar is a Veterinary Science Graduate and has post-graduate degrees in microbiology and epidemiology.